margaretandjoy

photos: m&j

On April 24th, we had the complete pleasure of joining a group of close friends and even a few adventurous family members (go A. Wright & Patsy!) along with our dear new friends at Haven’s Kitchen for their second ever Supper Club event. With food imagined and prepared by husband and wife chef team Andrew Lentz of Lincoln and Shaunna Sargent of Indie Food and Wine and Betto – we knew the evening was going to be something special. And it was that and so much more. The festivities began with a signature negroni cocktail downstairs in the cooking school kitchen with passed hors d’oeuvres, including miniature lobster sandwiches, chicken liver mousse on crisped toasts and fried fresh pea risotto balls – yum!  Then the forty of us headed upstairs for a rustic Italian meal prepared with organic and locally sourced sustainable fare and wine parings that had our mouths watering from the instant we sat down. The Antipasti was a fantastic panzanella of young beets, celery, charred onion petals, tender herbs fresh as fresh can be, house made mozzarella and Barolo vinegar with an Anselmi II Ceppo Prosecco NV. The Primi consisted of one the best raviolis we’ve ever tasted – blushed with fresh beet juice, these delicate pillows were stuffed with silky potato, pecorino romano and spicy black pepper, dressed with a lovely charred asparagus and paired with a 2010 Ocone “Flora” Falanghina. Secondi was a particularly well cooked pollo fra diavolo with braised radiccio and escarole salad and a 2008 Occhipinti “Siccagno” Nero D’Avola. And, finally, we stuffed our last bit of room with a lovely Dolci – rhubarb torta with ricotta gelato – wow! Another stellar evening burned into our tastebuds and our memories – which would be a bit nostalgic and bittersweet to look back on now if we weren’t already gearing up for the next Supper Club on May 17th (with chef Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern fame – can this honored new tradition possibly get any better?) … keep you posted!

photos: m&j

This past March 27th we were fortunate enough to attend the first ever (and first of many for us!) Haven’s Kitchen’s Supper Club – wherein Chef Eric Milley of Jeffrey’s Grocery and James McDuffee of Joseph Leonard – collaborated together on a wonderful family style menu for a lucky 40 of us in the upstairs event space on 17th Street. Thanks to a willing and adventurous bunch of close friends (a group also quite interested in celebrating dear Dave’s big 45th on the eve prior), we were able to commandeer an entire 10-top. And on that evening the group unilaterally decided to reserve a table at the Supper Club (where a new team of chefs will cook each month and where group members out of town for work or fun will let other friends in on the fun) for every month from now on as long as we all have the resources. It was a truly wonderful meal of amazing courses and wine pairings, beginning with specialty (beet flavored!) cocktails and hors d’oeurvres (including duck confit & lovely, fresh oysters to name a couple) in the downstairs kitchen and then upstairs for a first a first course of beautiful beet, citrus and ricotta salad and a warm mushroom salad with kale and a lovely Marie-Pierre Manciat Macon Les Morizottes. The second course featured completely delectable sweet & sour rock shrimp and a chilled calamari salad, paired with 2009 Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. The third course featured roast leg of lamb with pan gravy, gnocci as light as air and Sicilian greens with olives, fennel, raisins and black pepper gastrique, warm toasted barley salad with mint, almonds, confit shallot and manchego – all paired with 2009 Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge. And, last but not least, the fourth course brought it all home with a buttermilk panna cotta with citrus and granola and a light and (of course) amazingly delicious fried bread with honey, paired with Anselmi Il Ceppo Prosecco NV … The hospitality, harmony and sheer bliss of the evening’s food, creativity and camaraderie were beyond any of our wildest expectations – none of us can remember having a better evening of food and friendship in years! Thank you, Dave, Chris & Maria, John, Eddie, Billy, Steph and Betsy for sharing it with us. And thank you Ali, Rachel and the Haven’s Kitchen team for making this the first of a series of stellar gustatory, celebratory and just all-around amazing evenings to look forward to and remember for the rest of our lives!!